Silence after the storm
by Zkyrus
Summary: Max sacrificed Arcadia Bay for the life of her friend Chloe Price. The next day, leaving the ruins the storm has left, for the both of them, a new life begins - but will any of them ever be able to live with the hell they have gone through?
1. Ruins

The day after the storm lacked every sign of the seemingly all-destructive power of nature that had torn the little town of Arcadia Bay apart the  
previous evening, with nearly no clouds in the sky, just a light breeze from the sea and the sun shining brightly as if it wasn't autumn but summer.  
To cut it short, it was a surprisingly good day in autumn.  
But not for Max. Definitely, it was NOT a good day. It was the worst. Not one of the worst, but the worst, and that including everything she had gone through, the entire hell the last week had been to her - and Chloe.  
As the truck Chloe was so proud of - that rusty, old thing, which surprised Max with even still being able to move an inch - passed through the shattered wrecks once carrying the name "Arcadia Bay", she didn't feel good at all. She felt disgusted of herself. Grieving and sad, but also with a wide range of hateful thoughts targeting no one but herself. She sighed, as if that would help her let out the pressure inside her. If only she could blow out her emotions like the air in her lungs.  
Chloe, who slowly was driving her rusty and yet precious junkpile of a truck, noticed. Of course she did. She knew Max, maybe even better than Max did herself. The hand she placed on Max' shoulder helped, like it drained out the self-hatred, the sadness, the loss, everything, out of the young photography student. But only a little. Because even Chloe wasn't a saint.  
"Don't think too much about it, Max."  
It was a - obviously - weak attempt. Max looked back outside the window, releasing another sigh.  
"You haven't reached the Hitler-level of kill count yet.", Chloe added even with a slight sarcastic grin, and normally, Max would have at least chuckle about Chloe's crude kind of gallows humor. But now… it just felt wrong.  
"Chloe.", Max hissed at her, but not very loudly, "You are not helping."  
Now it was Chloe sighing, slouching her shoulders.  
"I am sorry. I just…"  
"You did not think."  
"You are reading me."  
Max did not reply. Her eyes were gazing out of the window again, searching for something she couldn't define. She did not know what she was looking for - surely not the absolutely false hope of finding some life sign in the debris - but she couldn't get her eyes off the ruins the storm had turned Arcadia Bay into. She pleadingly hoped she wouldn't get to see anyone she knew, lying on the ground, dead, with his or her life spirit already gone - or even worse: parts of someone she knew.  
Luckily, the image of a Kate Marsh shattered by debris burying her from the torso, her bones cracked and with blood all over her, stayed an image inside Max' head.  
As they passed by the diner, she felt her heart bursting into millions of shards impaling her chest from inside. Now, she couldn't even hold her tears back, knowing that it was her who had chosen all those people's fate - their doom - in order to save Chloe. A single person. One. All of Arcadia Bay, doomed by her decision, annihilated by the storm, because Max could not let go. Unfair wasn't even close to being the right word - everyone in Arcadia didn't even have a chance, a decision. Max knew she had put a death sentence on everyone knowing what consequence her decision would have. She let them die. And the moment she thought about that, she couldn't stop another liquid outburst of her body - but this time it was her vomiting on the floor of Chloe's car and parts of the side window. Chloe made a sound of disgust, but didn't say a thing.  
There were no words, neither good nor bad ones. Neither could she comfort Max nor scold her in any way. All she could do was drive the truck onward in silence, which was exactly what she did right now. And Max, pale like a ghost, now huddled on her seat, with her arms around the legs which she had pulled close to the body, sobbing in helplessness and grief, did not even blame her.

It did not help that they left Arcadia Bay. Not at all. Chloe expected Max would get at least a little bit better, the farer they would get from the little town by the seaside, but that was not the case. Of course not. Chloe pretended to be happy, to be untouched, as if it was just an incident, a piece of the puzzle called past - she turned up the music, stepped on the gas as soon as they got out of the ruins of Arcadia Bay, and she even managed to fake a little grin she typically had on her face whenever she had a Chloe-Price-kind of idea.  
But Max knew her long enough to know better. Chloe attempted everything, put every effort in seeming strong, untouched by the events and just like herself, but Max just looked through that. She knew that on the inside, Chloe was as shaken as herself, maybe even worse. Max couldn't - and didn't want to - imagine how she must feel knowing that her hometown, her family, everything and everyone which and who ever mattered to her apart from Max and her truck, had been exchanged for her own life, even after she had begged Max to let her die in favor for Arcadia Bay.  
It took Max several hours leaned against the, on the lower half vomit-stained, window of the car, staring outside at the sea next to the road they drove on, to even speak a word again. With the sun setting, Chloe's happy and careless masquerade fell, and she was silent again instead, just driving onwards, without any direction but straight, only following a road no matter where it would lead them.  
The first words Max spoke in hours were simple. Nothing special.  
"Where do we go?"  
An obvious question both of them had refused to intone until this point even if they both had it in mind.  
Chloe turned her head a bit, just shrugging.  
"I mean… we have to go somewhere."  
"Max.", Chloe finally broke her silence, "Glad you talk again, but… I have no fucking idea."  
Normally, Max would have reminded her in a humorous kind of way that that was another dollar for the swear jar, and normally, they would have laughed about it.  
But now, Max just replied with: "We need to move on. I just need… anything to do now. Anything to think about but…"  
She didn't say what they both knew she would have said.  
"Max, following this road, we will get to some shithole of a motel or a fucking gas station or even a road diner at some time, right?"  
"So we are leaving it to the coincidence."  
"I just don't wanna make decisions, that's all."  
The words, as they left Chloe's lips, hit Max like knives thrown at her. She lowered her head, sighing again, then nodding.  
"You are probably right."  
"If you say so.", Chloe answered, "Honestly, if that's the life worth saving over Arcadia fucking Bay, regret your faults, Max."  
And the cold bitterness in her voice crushed every little piece left of Max' emotional stability.


	2. What we lost

To my defense: I am NOT an english native speaker, as I originate from Germany. Still, I try my best to formulate whatever I have to say in a passable kind of way. Thx for reading, if you are.

They stopped at a motel Chloe described as a "hella crappy shithole of a place even taking cash for what they call accommodation around here"  
as soon as she got to see their room for the night.  
Max did not complain so much. Even a shower with traces of mold in the drain and similar signs of hygienic neglections was a shower to her - and she could really use one right now. She did not speak much - the few words she released from her mouth were addressed to Chloe, simply because there was no one else to speak to. Max couldn't help but notice the cold her childhood friend seemed to emanate towards her - yet, Max did not blame her. She was grateful for Chloe to be here with her. At least, she did not have to go through this alone, she kept telling herself.  
As the warm - because a lukewarm temperature was all the shower could provide her with - water flowed down her body, she started to feel at least a little comfortable. She couldn't even think about the last time she had taken a shower, though in fact, it had been yesterday. Before the storm, she thought with bitter realization.  
"Max.", Chloe yelled from outside, even over the sound of the flowing water, "First off: The motel room is exactly as cheap as I thought, so no financial crisis there. Second: I cleaned the mess in the car up. Thank me later."  
The words, sounding not offensive or reproachful like everything else Chloe had said to Max in hours, made the brunette photographer smile a little, just because she could hear the "old" Chloe out of the words. She did not answer, but still, it helped easing her troubled mind a little.  
Guessing - or knowing - that Chloe would definitely forgo the shower, she stayed under the spray of water some more minutes before she got out and started to dry herself with a - surprisingly decent - towel. A little look in the mirror, and Max felt like she was back at Blackwell again, which was, for the moment, a happy memory. A morning in the dorm, in the shower. Talking with the other students. Complaining to herself about her messy hair. Meeting up with Warren.  
And now, the happiness in her optically messed-up appearance in the mirror faded away, as tears filled her eyes - again.

Chloe let herself fall on the motel bed she had chosen as hers for the night.  
"You shitty-ass bed in a shitty-ass motel.", she murmured to herself, "You make me pay the next fucking Paris trip on my own if I stay too long."  
It was gallows laugh, of course, but in some way, she had to grin. But just a bit. She did not want to cry. Or even sob. Not in front of Max.  
Max who seemed like having one inner breakdown after another. Chloe didn't blame her directly. The blame on Max was more like a feeling Chloe couldn't get rid off. She knew why Max had chosen her. And she was grateful to be alive, of course she was. But she just felt overwhelmed. Chloe knew, she was more the punk rebel kind of girl - woman, she corrected herself - rather than the emotional one. Max was emotional.  
"I am strong.", she mumbled to herself, "I am strong for Max, 'cus someone gotta be strong in this junkpile of a life we have here. Wonder what Stepd…"  
She stopped thinking and talking to herself at the exact same time and supported herself with her arms to get into a sitting position. She laid the boot-clad feet on the bed - because in her opinion, they were already as dirty as they could get - and pulled her legs closer to her body. In fact, it was strange that she thought about her stepfather now. She spent so long hating him. But now, she wasn't even sure. It made her sad and a bit angry that she had never realized that "stepdouche" wasn't such a douche after all. Maybe something like a "stepdude", that was neither to positive nor negative.  
She smirked. He was dead, and though it hurt thinking that with him, her mother had passed to, she could think about David more easily than about her mother. No. She did not want to think about the fact that Joyce Price had taken her last breath. She just couldn't. But David?  
She cocked her head a bit. Maybe, if she would have been a little less prejudiced, rebellious and… stupid? … she might have gotten along with David way better. It was too late to think about that now, but Chloe could get herself to decide that David might have had his good sides too.  
Sighing, she laid back on the bed, which in fact wasn't as terrible as she claimed openly, looking upwards at the ceiling in a pensive manner. All that had happened… had happened way too fast.  
She had no plans. She realized now that she never had plans for what she would have done when she finally left Arcadia Bay - not after Rachel disappeared, and with her, the plans of going to California. After Rachel, there was just a big, black hole in her life, a hole she had nothing to fill it with.  
Actually, Max was right. Yeah, Max was right about needing a plan now. Where to go. What to do. Chloe had some dollars in her car, which she considered her emergency savings for emergencies like… this motel room, for a start, or the gas for her truck. But what if either the gas or the money expired. Chloe didn't have much left, in fact, only her car, what was in it, her clothes… Max. Above all, Max.  
She didn't need to reflect long to agree with herself that the top priority now was making sure Maxine - Max - Caulfield was alright and stayed alright. If there were the two of them, nothing could go wrong… at least she kept telling herself that childlike sentence like a prayer. Plus, she had nowhere to go… and she did not intend of splitting up from Max. No, now that everything was so terribly awful, they just had to stay together despite the distance between them at the moment.  
And that thought didn't even broach the most important topic which came to Chloe's mind.  
Whispering into the emptiness of the room, quiet except for the flowing shower in the tiny, adjacent bathroom, she asked herself as if someone could hear her: "Will she kiss me another time or was she just playing the morning at my place?"


	3. Without destination

As Max stepped out of the bathroom, Chloe was even bored enough that she had begun reading some cheaply produced flyers from the motel reception - something she'd never done normally. The sight of Max improved her mood a little and she threw the piece of printworks away, just on the floor.  
Max, still drying her hair with a towel wrapped around her upper head, turned towards her bed, where she had placed her few belongings before taking the shower - apart from her clothes, of course. Chloe watched her from the side, thinking for herself, but not saying a thing, while her childhood friend grabbed her jeans and put them on again. She left her bag, which was so iconic for her, the camera next to it, her phone and some other personal belongings on the bed, then finally turned towards Chloe with a sigh of relief.  
Max was looking good, even if she wasn't as fond of make-up as Rachel had been. And Chloe had stopped herself from having thoughts and feelings like this about Max some days ago already. And now, she didn't even feel weird about it any more.  
However, Max did not notice how admiring Chloe eyed her - luckily, Chloe added to herself silently, because THAT would indeed have been weird.

"I have come to an idea, Chloe."

Chloe, who started twirling a blue-colored strand of hair around her left forefinger, raised her body a little from her bed.

"I listen."

Max, after a small pause in which she probably gathered her thoughts, formulating what she would say next, explained:"Why don't we… turn around? Head north, I mean."

"You wanna go back?", Chloe asked with disbelief.

"Not to Arcadia.", Max hastily added, "But… Seattle. I mean, we could go to my parents…"

The more of those words she spoke, the quieter became her voice, as if she was even a little afraid.  
Chloe thought about this some moments. But not many, because then she came to her conclusion. She rose, so that she sat on the side of her bed next to Max' one, looked Max in the eyes and sighed. She did not want to immediately crush the little hope her friend had just built up… but she also, rationally, knew that this was not an option.

"Max, what do you wanna tell them? That you got superpowers and that Arcadia Bay has been wiped out by a storm? That is not an option. They won't believe you. You're gonna end up in a mental hospital, or they'll just think that it was me talking you into this "let's hit the road, quit your scholarship and travel with no direction to… somewhere"-stuff."

"But…", Max insisted, "We can tell them about the storm, that…"

"No, we can't.", Chloe interrupted her, but calmly, "They'd just make a major fuss about it. And it would give them the worst nightmares possible. You really wanna do that to your parents?"

Max lowered her head a bit in a pensive manner.

"I... "

"Don't go there. And that's not all, right? I mean you still got your superpower-stuff, right? Since I am alive, there's never been put an end to this… if our good-old buddy, the chaos theory, unleashes the next mother of all hurricanes, do you really wanna be close to your parents rather than… as far as you can get?"

Chloe hated herself for the tears her words brought to Max' eyes, but she just knew that seeking refuge at the Caulfields was the wrong thing.

"You… you are right, Chloe. I… I am sorry."

"Nothing to be sorry about, sweetie. But… we just have to figure this out on our own."

"When you said that about my powers…"

"I meant it."

Max raised her hands a little, looking at them as if they were new, unknown, something to inspect for the first time.

"I did not check, but… do you think I can still…?"

"Like I said, Max… I meant it. If all that crap is going on because I wasn't shot by Prescott that day… I see no reason why your powers should be gone."

Max raised her right hand a little further, causing Chloe to jump on her feet.

"Stop!" Which immediately made Caulfield freeze in her motion. "You are NOT checking this."

Max nodded and went back in the bathroom, coming back just seconds later without her towel, then sitting on her bed, starting to gather her belongings and put them into her bag.

"I won't be able to keep up my photography outcome, won't I?"  
Chloe sighed. She knew how much that meant to Max, but the old analog camera film costs were just unaffordable for them at the moment.

"Sorry, Max. But you know how low we are on cash…"

"Not the problem. I still got some. At least, Jefferson didn't burn these."  
Chloe grinned a little, as the atmosphere between them got lighter, a little less deep and with far less tragical thinking. Smiling helped. It really did.

Then, Max seemed to notice something, causing her to look directly at Chloe again, smirking even a little, a smirk the blue-haired punk immediately loved.

"Did you just call me "sweetie"?"

Chloe giggled.

"Guess I did."

"Wow.", was all Max replied, then lying down on her motel bed, "Strange to hear that. Stranger that I like how it sounds."

Chloe smiled now, just a little, but still, she smiled.

"I am just glad that you are alright."

"Recovering.", Max corrected her softly, "I am terrible. But recovering."

"You got lots of time to recover tomorrow.", Chloe murmured, "But for today, I could use some sleep."

Max nodded, but she couldn't help but ask another thing.

"Don't YOU want to take a shower? I mean after having cleaned up the car…?"

"I will.", Chloe explained, "Tomorrow. After I had to sleep in this kind of motel-shithole-bed."


	4. Gun control

The next day, Max woke early, but of course not earlier than Chloe. She hadn't slept well, due to the horrible nightmares in her head, but however,  
she wasn't too tired.  
To her surprise, her blue-haired friend was already out of the shower and dressed again in her clothes, but with the white shirt - the one she wore at the lighthouse too - under her black jacket, her hair half-covered under the beanie. Neither of them had any other attire than what they wore at the lighthouse, Max realized, before getting up herself.

"Morning." Chloe just murmured a little indistinct, not really awake and still a little sleepy.

Max responded the same, but with less trouble of being wide awake already, whilst Chloe rubbed her eyes a bit.

"Dude, I am tired."

"Didn't you sleep well?"

As an answer, Chloe stretched her body and yawned.

"I see." Max grinned a little before picking up her own clothes.

She didn't feel like yet another shower, so she refused to do her morning routine like always and simply got dressed, while Chloe watched her with no visible emotion, neither excitement nor aversion, her hands toyed with the three gun bullets hanging from her neck collar. She wore a bracelet, Max realized too, and sadly, she knew who this should remind Chloe of.  
Max hadn't thought at Rachel for days. She had never thought what would have happened if they'd actually found her alive. Max wondered whether she and Rachel would have gotten along well.

"Alright, I'm checking us out." Chloe announced and rose from the bed. "Meet you down at the truck."

"Uhm… thanks. You can't wait to get going, don't you?"

Chloe, who was already halfway out of the room, turned her head again to look at Max, thinking about it some seconds before replying.

"I'd rather be going somewhere than sticking around here for too long. You know, like… movement?"

And with that, she slipped out of the room, the door closing behind her.

"Some things won't ever change.", Max muttered to herself, then hanging her bag round her neck, but not before taking out her camera, looking at it for some moments.

She spent one of the precious camera films she still had on taking a picture of the view out of the window - the street at which the motel was located, and behind it, the sea. It wasn't the best photo, but for the moment, it was a view she want caught - especially, after everything she'd captured on photos had burnt down with her journal. She sighed, then put the camera back, along with the photo itself. Closed the bag, took a last look at the room, ensuring she had not left anything, before following Chloe's example and left.

"Don't you wanna tell me you kept that thing."

Chloe, who had her eyes on the road until now, turned her head for a second, looking at Max, who had opened the glovebox on her side. Chloe winced a little at the sight of Max holding the exact same revolver Chloe had stolen from her stepfather David Madsen - and the exact same weapon Chloe used to nearly shoot Arcadia Bay's infamous drug dealer Frank Bowers later. Max inspected that thing, making it obvious that she didn't know a thing about guns at all. Neither did Chloe… but at least, she got told something like how to do self-defense by David one day. She had barely listened that day, but still, she remembered some of his words. The memory made her sad - it made her realize how much David Madsen had been concerned about her in his own, rough, military way and how much she had been a silly teenager not appreciating this.  
But, yes, she did keep the gun.

"Don't you wanna tell me you're starting to adapt my way of talking. I am a major bad influence on you. Too bad I somehow like it." Chloe tried to joke herself out of the situation, away from the topic she did not want to talk about.

"Chloe!" Max said sharply, in a nearly scolding tone. "Are you insane? I mean… who do you even want to shoot?"

"I don't wanna shoot nobody." Chloe, whose eyes were back on the road, explained. "But if it's ever necessary in order to protect you… or myself… I'd rather have a friggin' gun in my car."

"You do remember Frank, don't you?"  
That hit home. Chloe swallowed. Yeah, she did remember. And she wanted not to.

"I did not kill him." she told Max - but more important, she told that to herself. "I mean, it was self-defense."

"Chloe…" Max started, put the revolver back in the glovebox and closed it. "I totally don't like that."

"It's like our health insurance, Max. Pointing a gun at someone usually makes an assailant stop wanting to hurt you, right?"

"And it might get you arrested."

"I do not want to sound like… David here. But still… the presence of that thing alone changes stuff, Max, even before you shoot the first bullet. I mean… it's just our reinsurance now that you can't use your powers anymore, okay."

Max sighed and turned her head, pensively looking straight out of the window on the road their truck went over.

"It's kinda cute how you try to protect me, Chloe." she whispered "I mean it really is. But I don't like this."

"I don't like anything of this." Chloe simply replied "But we don't know the road ahead. We keep that thing."

"I guess we have to."

"Hey, it's not like I am running around with it like a friggin' cowboy."

That comment from Chloe finally distracted Max from the serious topic and every other tragedy of the last day, for some seconds, and the eighteen-year-old smirked.


	5. Memories

I had to do the "XXXXXXXXXXXXX" thing because there was no other possibility of making a clearly visible split between one paragraph and another. I am sorry, but just blame it on the formatting which did not allow me to fill in some blank lines. :( 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The thing that made them stop next was the hunger. Neither of them had breakfast that day, and till noon, even Chloe couldn't hide the fact that her stomach was empty any more. They stopped at the next possibility they had - a roadside diner, in the typical american-diner-cliche-style, which didn't seem like such a bad place - even if it drastically deteriorated Chloe's mood - because of the obvious similarities to probably any other diner of its kind - including the Blue Whale's. Max knew why that made Chloe suffer, from the second on her friend entered the small restaurant, from the first tone of the music playing from the jukebox in the corner, she knew it. The fact that everything reminded her of Arcadia Bay's restaurant number one and only did hurt her too, but she couldn't even imagine how awful Chloe had to feel.

"We can leave, too." Max whispered towards Chloe as both of them just stood at the door after entering, both of them looking around, inspecting the diner in its entirety.

"There has to be some Italian or Asian restaurant around."

"We stay."

Chloe even sounded a little grim as she snarled that. She then continued, heading for the next table at the roadside window - far too much like in Joyce Price's place of work, for Max' taste… but when she thought about it, there were probably not as many restaurants around as she had told Chloe. And Max really was hungry.  
Chloe let herself fall on the restaurant seat facing Max, not seeming too happy at the moment. Her eyes were pointed at Max' face, whilst her surroundings didn't get any attention by her, not even short glimpses around.

"Think at our financial situation." Chloe directly explained. "Think cheap."

Max sighed, then nodded. She could understand Chloe, she really could. Still, she did not like the rough, authoritarian tone her friend used. She did not tell Price, of course, figuring this would only lead to both of them arguing. And she wanted that even less than a Chloe speaking in a harsh tone to her.

"I got it. No belgian waffles this time."

Max immediately regretted her words, with every little piece of herself, she hated the sound of the words that had just left her mouth. It was meant as a funny commentary, and she did not think about it, but she did say it. And the impact on Chloe was unsurprisingly.  
The usually friendly - towards her - and mostly carefree, even a little reckless Chloe was looking at her with direct, pure hatred in her eyes, burning with rage and the grief causing it.  
She hold this gaze up for some seconds, then turned her head away. Max was even surprised Chloe didn't go full berserk and sat - mostly - still. Still, Chloe's emotions were obvious. Without speaking a single word, and within fractions of a second, she made Max feel as terrible as nearly never before.

"I… I am sorry, I did not…"

"Shut. The fuck. Up.", Chloe hissed, "Just shut up, Max. Mom is dead, okay? It's okay! That happens!" She didn't sound like she meant that words, not at all. "It's okay, but don't fucking remind me of it! 'Cause, if you kinda forget it, who of us is the fucking reason? Who screwed it all up? But, yeah, thanks, Max, thanks for you just telling me, directly in the face!"

With each word, her voice became louder, angrier, but also more filled with despair and sorrow. She rose to her feet, just screaming at Max not minding the other customers - there was a family in the back at one table and some truckers at the bar - looking at her and her sudden outburst.

"If you want me to suffer, why don't you just tell me?"

The question was just screamed at Max, who lowered her head, ashamed and feeling terribly guilty right now.  
And she couldn't even give Chloe an answer. She did not know how to react, what to do. Not at all. All she felt, was overwhelmed… helpless…

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Think at our financial situation." Chloe directly explained. "Think cheap."

Max eyes widened.  
No, her head was screaming, no, no no. Just no. Over and over again. This could not be happening. She knew it, she knew what had happened, but she just wouldn't accept it. She denied what was an obvious fact, her insides all screaming in terror for her to wake up from a bad dream. But it was not a bad dream, as Chloe herself confirmed just seconds later.

"Max? Are you okay?"

Max was not. She had been everything but "okay", but now that she realized this was happening, actually happening, she felt even worse.  
She couldn't explain why, but she felt a sudden need to sob, which was exactly what she did. She cried, like a little girl crying at how unfair everything was, how unfair and terrible and evil.  
Chloe rose from her seat, went around the table, sitting next to her then, her sorrows at the memory of her mom's diner devoured by an even stronger feeling at the sight of the helplessly sobbing Max.

"Hey… it's okay… it's okay… I guess."

She didn't sound too convincing, but that was all she could come up with at the moment, given her current situation. She laid an arm around Max, in order to comfort her, but she herself also felt like a burden suddenly fell of her, as if it comforted herself more than it did to Max.

"Is it because of… Arcadia? Because of all that crap?"

She did not mind that every other person in the diner was looking at her right now, nor did she make any effort of explaining.  
To her surprise, Max just shook her head.


	6. Joking about nightmares

"So…" Chloe finally dared to ask. "What was it then?"

Max, who had calmed a bit, looked Chloe - who had taken the seat at the other side of the table again - in the eyes. The brown-haired girl - woman, Chloe reminded herself for what felt like the thousandth time - had become a little more calm - less because of Chloe's comforting skills and more because of the diner food Max was concentrated on now. Chloe herself did not even touch the burger in front of her at all. She had ordered one guessing one couldn't go wrong with this - and she was proven right. The meal looked - given Chloe's modest pretensions - straight-out luscious.  
However, she did not even look at it.

"I... " Max muttered under her breath. "Was just thinking… uhm…"

Chloe knew her well enough to know that Max was thinking of a fitting lie - and that whatever she'd say next would be unquestionably false.

"About Kate Marsh." Max finally came up with something.

And whilst Chloe knew that this would have been a reason for Max to just burst into tears, the punk did also know that this particular time, her friend had something else on her mind.

"Max, I know you." Chloe just replied.

She then watched how Max just looked at her plate and took another bite of her meal, using it as an excuse to remain silent.

"I know you well enough to be sure that it was not Kate Marsh in particular that made you… well… you know." Chloe continued a little helpless at finding the right words.

Max finally came to the conclusion that she couldn't just avoid the topic any longer, so her eyes met Chloe's.

"Chloe, I… uhm… I just said something really inappropriate and…"

"No, you didn't." Chloe forced herself to smile as she answered calmly. "I mean… I was the silly one… I shouldn't have affronted you like this…"

Her voice made clear how hard it was for her to speak these words - or to remain calm and solaceful with the feeling of loss inside her.

"I don't mean that… I… you can't understand that, because… I did not actually say that, it's more like…"

And at that point, Chloe got the idea.

"Oh."

Max immediately noticed that her friend had understood her incomplete sentences and remained silent - with a variety of negative feelings inside her.

"You mean, you... " Chloe used some gestures which made Max nod.  
Chloe rolled her eyes, but she did not scold Max immediately. She just couldn't force herself to do that to Max who seemed so weak, vulnerable... and sad at the moment.

"Even if we did agree on you NOT doing it?"

Max nodded, like a little child getting a good telling-off from its parents.

"You do know what that might cause… again?"

Again, Max nodded, just like before.

"Don't get me wrong, I… I am not angry or cussing you out. I just wanna know what got into you."

"I…" Max explained desperately, "I did because… You were so super angry at me - and I totally deserved it… but… I just couldn't stand it - that I hurt you so much."

Chloe leaned back a little, taking advantage of the diner seats which were so much more comfortable than those in her truck.

"Max." She let that sound like she was concluding the whole topic. "Again, I am NOT angry at you or disappointed or hurt or whatever… just… What exactly did you alter?"

She suddenly had a terrible presentiment. "Max, did I die again?"  
Max shook her head.

"It wasn't something that drastic." she quickly reassured. "More personal. I said something hurtful… I reminded you…"

"And you took the easy way." Chloe guessed.

"No." Max defended herself. "No… It's not like I… eradicate everything that does not suit me. In fact, I haven't… eradicated anything since… since the storm day."

Chloe sighed heavily. She could not be angry with Max, she just couldn't. But that did not mean she liked it.

"Max… Don't beat around the bush. You rewound. Call it as it is."

"Yeah, okay. Then: I did not rewind since the storm day. Better?"

"Better." Chloe nodded. "Still… what did you say?"

"I… I made a silly remark. Something inappropriate… not funny… and without any thoughts."

"And I freaked out?" Now, Chloe sounded more interested than accusing.

"You did… you totally did." Max answered with an absent, pensive look. "And I mean… I understand you."

"Max… did you joke about… someone I lost?" Chloe now asked with extreme carefulness.

"I… Yes. Yes, I did."

Chloe sighed. Now she could see why Max did rewind. She had possibly used her power before she could even think about it or its consequences - because Chloe could imagine herself and how she would react if Max did this.  
So, she could understand Max, her reasons… and her emotional outburst.

"You didn't want to use it, right? Your power…"

"No..: of course not. It just… I just did it without any thought about it... " Max sighed nearly silently. "What a silly and careless little idiot I can be."

"Hey, don't be too harsh." Chloe defended her. "I mean, first off, you didn't do that major changes this time… so we might get off cheaply … and with no friggin' storm this time. Plus… that was probably silly and risky and storm-causing, but…" Chloe grinned mischievously. "Still, it's actually cute to see how worried you are about me."

"Chloe." Max groaned in annoyance, but she was only half serious about it.

"Dangerous for every storm-plagued city around me, but still, cute."

Max sighed. Even if it was hard of Chloe to say that, and even if it had normally just hurt Max on the inside - for the moment, she chose to not think of Arcadia Bay and smirk instead about how messed-up Chloes sense of humor was.


	7. The end justifies the means

Since I did not say this yet: The opinions expressed in this fanfiction are those of the characters and only serve the purpose of entertainment.  
Just saying that I do not want to offend anyone with anything my characters say or do.  
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Max stepped out of the diner first, Chloe following her. She was not hungry anymore, and even if the most of their conversations in that diner were serious ones, not too happy, Max had somehow enjoyed the time with Chloe.  
However, her mood was still dulled by the problems they had faced and still had to face. She felt terribly guilty for that one rewind - even though it was a necessary one -, terribly sad about her lost friends and classmates - and how should she ever get over what happened, what she did to, Arcadia Bay? There was no answer. Like always.  
Chloe adjusted her beanie a little on her head.

"Okay, Max." she then announced and went around Max to stop right in front of her, looking in her eyes. "We have a problem."

"Another one?"

Chloe grimaced a little and explained: "We need to refuel the truck, like asap."

"And? Gas stations are not that uncommon around roads." Max responded, not understanding what Chloe was up to at all.

Instead, her eyes drifted over the parking lot of the diner, then to the horizon with the sea and the already setting sun. There were not many cars here, but Chloe's was undoubtedly the worst-preserved, oldest and by that, the most noticeable one.

"Are you listening to me?"

Her eyes returned to Chloe's face immediately, but still too slow for Chloe to overlook the second of inattention.

"Yes." Max muttered.

"Okay." The punk girl grinned, of course she knew Max had not listened - but she did not bring that up again. "Then you surely remember I told you about our lack of money."

"Oh." Max suddenly realized.

Of course. Money. How could she have NOT thought at this in the first place when Chloe mentioned the truck's need for fuel?

"So… we can't afford it?"

Chloe shook her head and started to slowly walk towards the truck.

"Don't worry, we can. Problem is: After that, we'll run out of money."

Max bit her lip a little. She often did this when concentrating or thinking hard, for example, when she was in class or doing a difficult homework on something… not that she'd ever do that again. She did not really think about it, but for her, it had become a fact within the last couple of hours - the last two days, to be concrete - that she'd never return to any school or university ever again.

"So… we pay for gas and then, we have no money left."

"Right. Just what I was saying."

Chloe now reached the truck, opened the driver door, got in, while Max took her seat next to her, too.

"We need to work."

Chloe, who was just about to start the engine, stopped in motion and laughed.

"You can't be serious."

Max did not understand what was so funny. In fact, she did not understand why Chloe hadn't thought of working for money herself.

"What's so funny?" she then asked a little irritated.

"What's funny?" Chloe still had a hard time with her attempts of calming herself and insert the key in the car's keyhole with her hand shaking from the laughter. "Max, we don't live in fucking Afghanistan. How are we supposed to get any work? We got no CV, no assurance, no certificates, to cut it short: we got no proof of anything. Neither of us has her full education - we dropped out of school, on purpose or by accident, but still - we are literally no one in the American fucking society."

"First off." Max slowly replied. "Afghanistan is not like a tribal reservate. Second off: I am not speaking of any real apprenticeship. I mean…"

"You mean like some minijobs. And illegal."

"Uhm."

"Be honest with yourself. This is illegal."

"I don't wanna starve. And we have to start from nothing - like you said. No proof of anything." Max looked in her bag, searching for her purse. "I mean, except ID."

"Your ID card does not get you your superior-student-certificates from Blackwell. Plus, where do you wanna start? And with what?"

Max thought about that for a moment, but Chloe was faster.

"I have a way better idea for the moment."

And the grin she had on her face was one Max knew quite well. She knew it because it was the same grin Chloe always had when she was about to do something horribly stupid and rash.

The next gas station on the side of the road was not less of an american cliche than the diner. It wasn't too new, with a mechanic's garage next to it, its door was half-open and, as Chloe drove the truck to the gas pump, Max could hear music playing from the garage - she heard it because she had lowered the side window to its half. Plus, she got a glimpse of the car inside, which made her guess there was someone working there. She sighed.

"Chloe, no. Forget it. There is someone in there"

"You know how a mechanic works?" Chloe tried to calm her. "Under his car. He won't even get any hint that we are here - and if he somehow does, we'll be gone before he even gets out from under his car."

"I still don't like the idea of…"

Chloe stopped right next to one of only two pumps and hopped out of her car. She left her door open and Max could strongly smell petrol. She turned her head from Chloe to the small shop - where she already expected to be looked at back by a cashier.  
However, her worries remained just worries - the cash register was unstaffed.

"Don't worry. This gas station is a private one, not one from a chain. Guess the sole member of the staff is working." Chloe told her as if she had read her thoughts. The blue-haired girl then pointed at the gas station shop's door.

Max' eyes followed the pointing arm only to discover a sign saying that the shop was unoccupied and the owner was to be found in the garage.

"I don't think he awaits any customers." Chloe giggled. "Lucky for us."

"Just… hurry up."

Max bit her lip again, but this time, because of tension. Her eyes were pointed at Chloe, but still, she kept looking back towards the garage, expecting a very tall mechanic in a dark blue overall with oil stains all over it, with muscular arms, bull neck and a facial expression to kill.

"Hey, c'mon, Max. Could you look in the back of the car? I have to have a gas can somewhere…"

"No! Just… finish up and let's leave."

"Then we will run out of… supplies… sooner. But that's fine, if we find another gas station then."

Max rolled her eyes and removed her seatbelt.

"Still hurry up… please."

"Until now, I did not do anything illegal. I am just using the gas pump, right?"

Max got out of the car on her side, closed the door and headed to the back of the car.

"I don't want to steal."

"That" Chloe corrected her. "Is not true. You don't wanna be caught stealing. That's a major difference."

Max did not have anything to reply to that.


	8. Anxiety attack

Fair warning: this chapter is, in major parts, about my character thoughts and emotions, so don't be too critical if I did not manage to express what I was trying to in English.  
Also, thank you for reading :) I just wanted to say that.

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"Max." Chloe suddenly noticed, while she was about to fill the first of the first gas canisters Max found in the truck. "I have something to do for you."

Max sighed, knowing she wouldn't like what was about to come from her friend. And she was proven right.

"We got ourselves an unoccupied gas station store with a completely unaware and, even better, a very much absent owner… Which is, in our situation and our lack of food, drinks and money, a… perfect opportunity."

Max pushed herself off the truck's side she was leaning at. She had already gotten the point.

"You want me to steal."

"It ain't stealing." Chloe corrected her with a smirk. "We just take advantage of our basic human rights."

"Property is a basic human right too, you know?"

"Screw that. We won't get that kind of chance again… and it's not like we take what this guy needs for a living."

Max didn't want to do that. She did not want that. Every little part of her body was screaming "No!" right now, wanting to resist - but finally, her pure will won over the inner voice telling her not to break any of the laws she had always taken as an unbreakable law, as something she would never even consider to ignore. But now, as she nodded, then walked towards the empty gas station store, all of that, this whole mentality, seemed like a piece long gone, like the past.  
With each step, it felt easier.  
She entered the little store, looked at the shelves. She knew she couldn't take too much, because she just couldn't carry too much and did not want to go several times from the truck to the store and back.  
Plus, Chloe's truck did not have any form of refrigerated storage, which meant, Max did not have to take too much from the store. She decided for some bottles of water, some snacks and, since she expected those to be good for the longest time, some canned meals. Even if her bag was not that big, it helped her carrying her theft.  
She exhaled deeply.

"Now I have stolen something." Max whispered to herself. "Does that change me, in any way?"

She headed towards the exit, but could not resist to stop at the sight of a wall mirror. She looked at herself, at her face, pensively.  
What exactly did she see? That was a tough question. She could not give herself an answer to it, but she kept standing still some more moments, just deeply looking into her own eyes in the mirror.  
Who was the young woman she was looking at, she just kept asking herself. Just following the bare facts, she was looking at a thief, mass murderer and - since she had broken into principal Wells' office once - a burglar, also a school drop out, a homeless, roadside vagabond with no home, family or relationships, doomed to be the lone outlaw following a road to an unknown destination, stealing whatever she needed on her way, justifying the means with the ends because she couldn't stand the fact that she was - undoubtedly - a sad and pathetic, criminal and restless outcast destined to never reach any destination in her life.  
Those thoughts hurt. It felt like Max had rammed a knife into her own heart.

"No." she mumbled as if her reflection in the mirror would listen to her. "I have a destination… and a family…" Her head turned a little, looking out of the big glass window of the gas station, her eyes pointed at Chloe who was just about to pack the now-filled canisters back in the truck. "And people who care about me."

She inhaled now, very deeply, blowing out the despair and anxiety built up inside her head like she'd blow out the consumed air from her last breath. Then, she turned her eyes back to the mirror for some seconds - and finally left the store with more self-confidence than before.

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"Where have you been?"

"In the store."

Chloe smirked.

"You took like, ten minutes."

"I got… pensive."

"Ah, did you? Consider me surprised." Chloe's voice was dripping with irony for a second, then it got much more calm, caring… and empathetic. "What's the matter? I mean, this time?"

Max didn't answer, instead, she got in the truck. She kept silent until Chloe, with real surprise on her face now, drove from the gas station's yard back on the road with.  
Then, being sure that they were out of the danger of being caught stealing, she finally let out her tension with another exhale.

"I… The more we do… this…" she stammered. "I mean this, "We don't belong to society anymore"-stuff… the more I ask myself... " She stopped, then, after a short pause, asked more directly:" Chloe, is it right what we are doing?"

Chloe's eyes were shimmering with comprehension.

"You got an anxiety attack, right?" she guessed. "Like, looking at yourself and just being overwhelmed by everything? Seeing no way out other than going through hell? Feeling like it's just too much and you can't take anymore of it?"

Max slowly nodded.

"I feel you, Max." she continued calmly. "I mean, I really do… There were times in my past when I was terrified by looking at my own face, when I feared about closing my eyes for just a second because of the dreams that I knew were waiting for me in my sleep. At some point, I just took pills not to fall asleep, did everything not to be distracted, not to start contemplating - everything because I feared the thoughts I'd have."

Without any more word spoken, Max knew this was about the time Chloe had lost her father - and even if Max did not know a thing about that part of Chloe's life, she imagined it to be the total low point for Chloe.

"And… how did you get out of it?"

Chloe thought about that for some seconds, and Max could literally see her brain working.

Then, she replied: "I did not get out." Then, after a little pause, she added: "Others did that for me."

And the fact that Max just knew that she was one of the two persons Chloe meant with "others", made the former photography student both happy and sad at the same time.


	9. Self-talk at night

Blessed be the monologue, for it only requires one person talking :D Still, there might be some vulgar expressions - since it is Chloe acting here - in it, so consider yourself warned.  
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Max was asleep. Chloe was alright with it. It gave her time on her own, given the small amount of space the two of them had at the moment - in fact, their "space" was reduced to nothing but the truck. And Chloe just kept it going.  
She did not feel tired or sleepy at all. She knew, since Max had been checking her cell some time ago, that it had to be around one a.m., but that was only a guess. It was hard to keep an overview over time when all she was doing was driving straight on the road without even being headed anywhere.  
Chloe knew they were direct southward, but that was all.  
She had turned the radio off as soon as she had noticed that Max had fallen asleep on her seat, leaned towards the side window. She seemed so peaceful when she was sleeping, even with everything she - they - had gone through. But now that she was asleep, it just seemed to be all gone, like nothing of that really mattered.  
But that, Chloe told herself, was nothing but a thought, far from real.

"You know." Chloe mumbled, with her eyes pointing in the dark outside the windshield, only enlightened by the car's kinda faint lights. "Reality is a son of a bitch."

She did not know exactly whether she was speaking to the sleeping, not listening Max, or whether she was just vocalizing her own thoughts.

"I mean, as good as we might consider all of this, I mean, this whole "at least, we have each other"-"It's not that bad"-"Let's move on"-"We'll find something to live for"-bullshit… in reality, our lives are…" Chloe reflected for a moment, then said the obvious. "Fucked up."

For a moment, her eyes were on the peacefully sleeping Max, then back on the road.

"You can't hear what I'm saying though, and if you could, I'd probably don't say any of this, but…" She sighed before whispering the words which felt so heavy to intone.

"Thank you."

Chloe remained silent for some seconds, just thinking, some seconds which just belonged to her and her thoughts.

"I probably shouldn't say this. Or think this. Because, I came at a price." Smirking, she interjected: "No pun intended. But, hell yeah, me being here… you just paid whole Arcadia Bay for it. And… I was angry about it. I should be, of course I should, 'cus, my life compared to a whole town, how could I be okay with that?" Chloe sighed, forming the "but" part of her little monologue. "But seen that way: I don't want to die. I want to live. And the fact that you preferred me over a whole town, all your classmates, friends… hell, even my mum and stepdouche - sorry, David -... it feels irritating, and sometimes wrong, and unfair, and totally unproportional… but also… Max, thank you." Knowing that Max did not really listen, not really comprehend, helped her, just let it all out. "I am grateful. In spite of everything, you saved me, and you saved me over everyone and everything meaning… something… to you, and that's just… whew. I mean, that's a, if not the, major statement about what I mean to you, right?"

Chloe wriggled about on her seat, releasing the steering wheel for a split-second before getting hold of it again, only because her hands felt uncomfortably sweaty on it.

"I mean… like I said, that's a horrible way of expressing it, but… I certainly do have some value to you, don't I?"

Again and again, Chloe glanced at Max for seconds, then back on the road and into the darkness outside, only to repeat those glimpses… maybe she wanted to be sure Max was not waking up… actually, she did not know why herself.

"I mean… I'd never say that out loud to you… if you were listening and stuff…. but, hey, I never had… that before." She had to laugh a little as she noticed what she had just said. "Of course, Chloe fucking Price, master of senseful sentences… how often does someone sacrifice a town for you?" With another laugh, her concentration returned to Max. "I am just not used to be cared about so much. And I am not talking about the storm, it's… more like the whole. Sure, there were mum, dad… David, maybe… Rachel… but none of them… is like you. Thing is… I miss them, Max. Maybe the difference is that you're alive and they are not, and that I am judging… like I always am. Chloe, you selfish little bitch."

Smirking, she exhaled, and then her smirk changed into a thoughtful and even a little sad expression.

"I know it's unfair to judge dead people for… being dead. It's selfish… thinking of them as if they had simply abandoned me. That's… just not fair from me." Another pause, some more seconds of silence except the car's sounds. "But looking at what is and what isn't… you are here. Rachel isn't. You are here for me and Rachel isn't. She didn't deserve me thinking that, but… her being not guilty about her death does not help me in any way. You being alive here… that's something else. Honestly… thank you that you are alive with me."

Chloe held the steering wheel steady, then leaned to the side, to the glovebox, and opened it, grabbing the cigarettes she hadn't got out of there for a self-surprisingly long time. She sat up again, steering the car while getting one of the cigarettes out with rather clumsy fingers, since her main concentration was not on unboxing a cigarette right now.

"I feel weird now. I mean… Here I am, driving and spilling out my guts to the sleeping you… and only now I am feeling weird. Not before."  
She grinned, ending her little monologue. She put the pack of cigarettes in her jacket's pocket, only keeping one of the cigs between her right middle and pointing finger, with both hands on the steering wheel.

For minutes, it was silent in the car, apart from Chloe, who placed one hand in her pockets searching for her lighter while concentrating on driving, and the all-present sound the car gave off.

Only then, after what felt like hours, Chloe could feel the need to say something else.

"Max… you'll probably never hear that from my mouth, but… do you remember us waking up at my place? I know, that's a felt eternity, but… you know I dared you to kiss me and you, like immediately, did it. Remember, I was like, hella surprised and then I accused of… having rewinded already several times? I am pretty sure, when I think about it now, that you did not. You did not kiss me multiple times with rewinding afterwards until it wasn't something new for you… I got your first-and-only-time-reaction. I mean, that's what I hope. Because… you know, I was surprised you'd do that. And… that's not a negative thing, because…" She sighed and cut off the stammering emanating from her mouth. "What the heck am I even blabbering… I love you, Max, hell yeah, I do. But I am a coward. And I mean it, I am. I was with Rachel… and I am with you. You'd disagree and say something on the Max-Caulfield-level of cleverness against it… but you are the stronger one, the more self-confident, and I… I don't even dare to tell you. You at least… tell me about what you feel, and I… I just pretend being strong for you while on the inside, I am even more overwhelmed with the situation than you are… which I don't tell you because I don't want to ruin the image you have of me…" Her eyes got stuck on Max' face, her closed eyes, her peaceful expression. "Or do you know me… and what's inside me? I wonder if... " Even if Max would not answer, she couldn't help but ask. "Do you read all that from me? Do you… know?" She exhaled and finally got her eyes off Max and on the road.

"Guess that makes me the one needing you, not the other way round." She smirked and muttered: "Hell, how I love you."

And, now out of Chloe's field of vision, her eyes still closed, her body not moving a bit, the very much awake Max smiled a tiny bit.


	10. California Girls

Thank all of you for the (very positive) reviews for the last chapter and the whole story so far - and for reading, of course :)  
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Max pretended to be asleep a little longer. She did not want Chloe to know that she had listened to every word spoken, because Max just knew for certain that Chloe would not want it. No. Those words, every little information Chloe had given about herself, all that was not meant to be heard by Max, and Caulfield did not insist on bringing it up again.  
Instead, she just rolled a little to the left, facing Chloe, then yawning, officially announcing her now awake state.

"Hey." was all Chloe whispered, seeming sure that her monologue had stayed a mono-, not a dialogue.

"Hm." Max mumbled. "How long…?"

"About half an hour. I guess. I have no watch."

Max nodded. She didn't care about how late it was, all she knew was that it must have been around one or two o'clock.

"Max, I got… some kind of an idea, you know?"

Now interested, Max sat up in her seat.

"What's on your mind?"

Chloe exhaled.

"You know, we can't just stay this… nomadic."

Max, after a little reflection, slowly nodded.

"Yeah."

"So… I guess you know what Rachel and I had planned… we never came to fulfill our plans."

Max did not have to think, not for a second. She knew what Chloe was talking about, and she was surprised that Chloe did not avoid this topic - what, given the circumstances, would normally be completely comprehensible.

"Didn't you… want to leave Arcadia and…?" she however mumbled.

"California. You know, Rachel dreamed of L.A.. Modelling. Maybe acting. Whatever. She was born in California, and she so wanted to go back. With me. Start something  
there."

Max nodded, sensitively not asking further questions - at least for some time. Then, after that time, she just couldn't hold herself back.

"And you?"

"And I?" Chloe asked totally missing what Max wanted to know. "What about me?"

"What were YOUR plans? I mean, sorry, but don't you wanna tell me that you wanted to become a model too."  
Max was unsure whether Chloe would laugh about that or just freak out, but luckily, it was the first one.

"Why, 'cus I'm ugly?"

"You are not ugly…" Max tried to explain.

"Nah?" Chloe couldn't stop herself from grinning. "What makes me that, then? Beautiful? Pretty? Sexy?"

Max blushed. She normally didn't around Chloe, but Chloe normally didn't broach that matter. Luckily for her, Chloe was looking straight out of the window, and it was too dark to see that, too.

"Uhm… I just meant you don't seem like the girl dreaming of a modelling career, that's all." she saved herself.

"Ah." Chloe still had that mischievous grin on her face. "I can live with that. So…" She took a deep breath as if she'd start telling a long story now. "My plans? To cut it short, there were none."

"You had no plans?" Max exclaimed in surprise. "Like, literally zero?"

"You know me, do you?"

Max nodded.

"You probably didn't think further than leaving Arcadia Bay."

"Exactly. I was never a dreamer." the blue-haired young woman replied. "I mean… Rachel was like, totally focussed on what she was doing. She always seemed so… coordinated, planned, like she was playing a game in which she already knew the next three or four moves."

"I know what you mean."

"No, you don't." Chloe's voice corrected her, but not too sharply. "You're like Rachel. You just… I mean, when did you plan to become a photographer and go to Blackwell?

Must have been when you got out of kindergarten… or earlier?" That made Max giggle a little, but Chloe continued: "What I'm saying is, Rachel… and you… you had your plans, like always aiming for that big goal. But now look at my life."  
Max wanted to disagree, but deep inside, when she thought about that, she had to admit that Chloe was somehow right; What was the driving force in Chloe? What had it been before Max had come back to Blackwell? In fact, from what Max knew, Chloe had just lived for Rachel… but never for herself. What did Chloe want, just for herself? And the fact that Max couldn't come up with an answer really pestered her.

"Yeah, right." Chloe broke the silence. "Nothing. I don't live for plans. Maybe I'm happy with what I am and what I have… or I'm just spontaneous. However, I did not have a concrete plan with Rachel… what I should do with my own life and what I wanted to achieve, to reach."

"And… now?" Max carefully asked, with a faint voice. "Do you know that now?"

"I do." was all Chloe answered - nothing more.  
But Max could imagine what Chloe's motives… and wishes were. What she was living for right now. Or whom.

"So." Chloe interrupted her thoughts with a softly whispering voice. "Since we don't have the slightest goal, aim, direction, destination… California, it is?"

Max just nodded.

"We have no reason to go there." she murmured. "But we oughta do something except driving around. So, yeah, California."  
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Max woke up - this time she had actually slept - the next morning. Without even a single look on any watch, she could tell it was very early in the morning, and that made her figure out that Chloe must have been driving the whole night, without a stop.  
The brunette ex-student stretched her aching body, feeling that her muscles, especially her back and her neck - were tense as a consequence of her unhealthy sleeping position in the car, leaned to the side door and window.

"Hey, Max." Chloe welcomed her, actually sounding joyful and happy as the "old" Chloe Price.

"Hm." was all Max mumbled back, then brushed her hair out of her face before beginning to inspect her look in the back mirror. "I look terrible."

Chloe giggled.

"I wouldn't say terrible." she teased. "More in need of renovation."

Max couldn't help but laugh.

"Renovation?" she repeated, trying to sound as unbelieving as she could.

Which only proved that she was not born to be an actor - and that made Chloe laugh out loud again.

"Anyway, good morning. No breakfast at bed, though, because… well, because we have no bed."

Max nodded and opened the glove box to get some of the stolen snacks from the gas station. It was neither healthy nor filling, but for the moment, it was better than nothing.

"Chloe…" she then asked.

"Yeah, I'm still here."

Max smirked a little, then asked the question she wanted to ask.

"What about you? I mean... " She sighed. "When do YOU sleep?"

"I slept…"

"You slept in that motel. And that was two days ago."

"One day, okay? Today is not a full day on your worry-scale yet."

"For me, it is. What I'm saying… you need to sleep."

"I ain't tired."

Max placed a hand on Chloe's shoulder, leaned towards her, to get at least a glimpse on her eyes, which were turned on the street the truck still followed, unchanged since they had driven away from the gas station.

"But you should be." she then explained. "I mean, it's normal… and you know that you can't drive with your eyes closing every three seconds."

"Max." Chloe sighed, stretching the "A" in the word longer than usual, which made it sound reproachful.

"No, don't give me that tone now. You need to go to sleep. So you do. Stop when it's next possible."

Chloe now looked quite surprised, even though Max had said that in a calm tone, not yelling at her.

"Uhm… okay, General Caulfield?"

Max giggled.

"I'm sorry for sounding like I'm your m…"

She stopped her words. No, she could not say that to Chloe. She just couldn't - it was inappropriate, and she had experienced that in the diner already. She knew it, since Chloe had just lost her mother… and Max told herself to be even more careful with her words - after rewinding to erase the anger Chloe had on her face since she, of course, knew what Max was just about to say.  
Which Max then reluctantly did.


	11. Like a piece of me is dying

Ha, Max! You think you get off this one without YOUR "emotional chapter on yourself without the other protagonist present or taking actions"? You're wrong: Here you are, Maxine Caulfield. :)

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Max sighed and opened the co-driver's door to get out of the car. The feeling of soil, solid, unmoved soil under her feet felt so good. Standing on her feet did, too. She realized she had sat in the truck for too long without a single break, and now, her back, shoulders and neck were aching from her sleep, but also her legs, knees and waist from just sitting cramped in the truck for hours. She took a deep breath, inhaling the fresh air.  
At least, as fresh as it could be, on a road side resting spot between the empty road and Oregon's forests on the other side. She inspected her surroundings. There were no other cars parked here on the dirt ground next to the road, but on the "forest side", there was a wooden picnic table with two benches attached to it, right next to a small path, maybe for hikers, into the forest. She also saw a big sign there, with a map of the region, hiking trails marked on it. It looked old, and Max guessed there were not many hikers around here. She approached the sign, driven by pure boredom since Chloe had finally fallen asleep in her car - even if she had resisted to Max insistence first, claiming it was alright and she did not need to rest.  
In order to keep herself entertained, Max just glanced over the stationary hiking map. It informed her that there were a couple of trails around, but she guessed they were as neglected as the map here was - and she didn't even want to start thinking about the public toilet cabin she saw on the resting spot too.  
Her focus changed a little, and she started inspecting the wildlife information part of the sign. According to it, there were some relatively small animals like birds, squirrels or raccoons, but also a warning of bears. She shivered a little, despite knowing she was in no danger.

"Yeah, right." she mumbled. "A bear attack is exactly what would spice up our pile of bad luck."

Of course, she knew that she did not have to fear being suddenly attacked and ripped apart by a surprise murder bear here, but as always, she had a quite active fantasy.  
Bored, Max headed towards the picnic table and sat down on the spot of one of the benches which looked the least filthy to her.  
First, she suppressed the arising hunger inside her with a little snack from her bag, which was clearly not a fulfilling meal, but enough to rid her of the feeling of hunger in her stomach for the moment. Then, she took out her camera, realizing how little she had thought about it and her photos - compared to the time at Blackwell, before the storm.  
In fact, she had taken a single photo since the storm - one image in days.

"And I thought I'd have a hard time keeping my photographic outcome and consumption of films low." she ironically muttered under her breath.

She ascribed that to the fact that she had other things to worry about. However, she now felt like recording at least something, so she lifted the camera, taking a photo of the cliche of a roadside hiker resting spot. She only glanced over the photo from her analog instant camera, which she normally didn't - usually, she inspected her images carefully and for some moments - before she just packed the photo and the camera in her bag without the passion for the topic of photography she used to have - now, it just felt like taking a photo, instead of the feeling she used to have: that she created something important, a memory, a fragment of her life caught on a photo.  
She sighed a little sad about how much her photography had lost its value to her - once, it had been so important, and now… all that passion, it seemed all gone. And even if she could not force herself to think different, it made her sad, as if she had just lost something, a part of her life, a part of herself, as if pieces of herself had just… died.  
She hung the bag back around her neck - and with this topic out of her mind for now, she had to ask herself something.

"What…" Max mumbled to herself in a pondering mood. "Will I do with my life?"

She did not know - anymore. Max used to have so concrete plans about her life, about her profession, what she wanted to do with her life, what to achieve… but now?  
She just felt empty - her whole goal-driven and forward-thinking spirit drained by the murderous winds of the storm she had unleashed on Arcadia Bay.  
And at that point, she got up, walked towards the forest path. Got out her camera. Took a deep breath. Closed her eyes for a moment.  
And finally threw the little device as far away as she could, hearing the distant cracking sound with even a little, unexplainable relief inside her.  
She turned back towards the resting spot. And she did not rewind.


	12. Back on track

Yeah, back on track :D Not only are Chloe and Max back on the road, I (the author) have also ended this far-too-long break in writing this. Sorry for that, and thanks to all reading :D  
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The time when Max got back to the car, she was welcomed by a wide-awake Chloe Price sitting in the car on the driver's side, the door wide open and her legs outside the car, basically with her back turned towards the other door, just looking straight over the parking spot, until she saw Max approaching.

"Hey, Max."

She did not comment on Max stony-faced, somehow melancholic expression. She just accepted the fact that for whatever reason, Max was not in the best mood. Maybe, she was just getting used to this, since in the last couple of days alone, this had happened far too often.

"You are awake." Max unnecessarily stated. "Already."

"Hey." The grin on Chloe's face was so typically her that Max' gloom was eased immediately - just a little bit, but still. "Don't gimme that face."

Max' expression became a questioning one.

"What face?"

Chloe however just pointed at her, grinning, brushing her hair back from her face with the other hand, since her

blue strands of hair seemed to be as rebellious as herself.

"This one. I didn't do a thing, Judge Caulfield."  
All this made Max do was sigh a little.

"I am not blaming you for anything, but…. you do need some sleep. You slept like… half an hour?"  
Chloe's mischievous grin became even bigger, and she jumped up on her feet and out of the car.

"It were at least thirty-five minutes." As she saw Max crossing her arms and lifting an eyebrow reproachfully, she added: "And some seconds."  
Without an actual answer, Max let her arms fall down, sighing again, turning her body in order to go to the other side of the car and get in on the other seat.

"Let's go." she mumbled, making it clear how much she did NOT want a discussion with Chloe now.

And that actually surprised her childhood friend a little, for it left Chloe standing there puzzled for a moment, without her expectations of Max smiling at least a little or - as the opposite - starting an argument, fulfilled. She managed to get it together, though, and got in the car again.

"Are you alright?"

This question was the first after some moments in which none of them said a word. Chloe asked it just as they got of the resting spot and back on the street, which was as empty as always.

Max, who had taken a huddled position on her seat with her legs pulled close to her body on the seat and turned towards her side window, away from Chloe, turned her head - and not her body - towards Chloe, but only looking her in the eyes for seconds, then Max' grey eyes were turned back out of the window, her face covered from Chloe's view by her hair, but the blue-haired punk imagined it to wear a pensive, maybe worried expression.

"As always."

"You weren't like this when we stopped."

"It's nothing."

Chloe could have stopped it here. She could have put her whole concentration on the road, on driving, on her thoughts, she could have turned her eyes forward. But Chloe Price wouldn't have been Chloe Price if she hadn't insisted.

"Tell me."

She wanted to annoy Max, to simply frustrate her until she spilled everything on her mind out, every worry that was plaguing her. And if Chloe price knew how to do anything well, then it was to annoy people.  
She knew she had succeeded as soon as Max turned her body at her, inhaling deeply.

"Chloe, nothing is okay. You have not slept in days, and NO, these thirty minutes do NOT count. It's just… not good for you." The art girl forced herself not to blush about how cute her being worried about Chloe might have sounded, and she helped herself out by continuing: "I mean, you are driving. If you get tired, both of us might die!"

Chloe just leaned back, focussing on the street know, laughing.

"I am not worried. If we die, just rewind."

Max was speechless, stunned. And totally not sure whether it made her angry about Chloe or made her admire her - even more - for the fact that she just kept positive and worriless despite everything that had happened.


End file.
